Monday, April 29, 2013

I'm lifting myself out of the painting chair for a few minutes to post up my LPL Round 2 entry...this is another batch of the Bretonnian Archers that I've been plodding through. These are the figures that turned me onto the 5th edition Brets in the first place and I still think they are the cream of the crop....well except for the one plastic guy...but he blends in pretty well...:)

Here they are:

The lighting is a bit dodgy on the guy far left...but its was the best I could do in short time. Also note my well warn building from the late 80's on the right...its has seen better days but is still working for my table!

Monday, April 22, 2013

So the first week of the LPL just wrapped up and the second started...so now I can share the picture of my first entry. The special theme for round 1 was: Command Element. So for a team to earn the bonus points it had to include some sort of identifiable command and control figures. Luckily this theme fit perfectly with a group of figures I painted up as part of a small commission I did for DD-Chris over on the LAF. I worked up a group of Battle Honors 25mm DAK figures for him to use in his pulp gaming. This group included a Lt. type and an radio operator....sounds like a command element to me!

Here they are...I hope you are putting them to good use DD-Chris!

For 25mm figures these are nicely detailed and quite fun to paint....them seemed quite small in comparison to my normal 28mm heroic scale figures but I enjoyed them and they are very cost effective.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

After seeing the results of several recent posts about "dipping" I decided to give it a try myself. Now no one around me carries Army Painter Products...and I didn't really want to pay $30 for an experiment anyway...plus several people "in the know" assured me that the AP version was just repackaged wood stain ...so...I decided to go with the Minwax Polyshades "dip". Now in my copious reading on the subject most people suggested AP strong tone or, its rough equivalent Miniwax Antique Walnut, as the most useful colors. I actually had a $5 coupon to my local hardware store so I picked up a tin...only $3 with the discount so why not!

To test this technique I thought some of the 4th edition Savage Orcs would be useful. So I primed one in white and slapped some base colors on it...I used the old Goblin Green that I've had for eons for the flesh...this is my normal highlight color. The rest I did with "brighter than you would think necessary colors" and then I Brushed on a coating of the Antique walnut stain....I let it dry and it looked HORRIBLE! But I knew that it needed a coat of matte varnish before I should make my final judgement...so hit it with some Testors Dullcoat and it looked better...still not good... but better....take a look...

To my eye the Brown colored stain was just the wrong choice for this figure....it looked bad on the Green flesh and just wasn't working for me. So I found my way to an ACE hardware...the only place that seems to carry the black based Tudor Stain in my area...luckily they had a can...from the dust on top I could tell it wasn't a popular color but I was very happy to find it. It cost me another $8 but I'm still coming out ahead compared to buying AP Quickshade. Here are the two cans side by side.

With the Tudor stain in hand I picked another Savage Orc and got to work...and I remembered to take pictures this time! :lol:

So again I primed white and slapped some bright colors on this dude...it took me about 15minutes to block in the base colors....here is what he looked like pre-dip

I then brushed on the well stirred Tudor stain....using the brush and a paper towel to remove larger than wanted pools of the stuff...and let him dry over night....here is the result.

YIKES! That is terrible! Quick! Get the Dullcoat!

Ahhh...that's better....in fact that's a LOT better. I personally think he looks pretty good! considering the time I put into him he looks alright!

Of course everybody looks better with a completed base...so I finished him off like my usual figures.

Hey hey! Not Bad! Not going to win any contests with them but overall quite pleased...and a complete unit of these is going to look great. The only post-dip highlighting I did was on the blue war paint where I picked out the VERY highest of highlights...took a total of 3 minutes. I also painted the metal...in this case copper rings on his arms and neck...using my usual highlight and sepia wash and he was done. Obviously he still needs a shield but I haven't found the right ones yet... :?

So...overall I will be quite happy to use this technique on certain troop types. For now it will be restricted to my 4th edition Orcs and possibly my Marauder Beastmen (I'll try the walnut on them again...might be a better fit)...but if I can get them on the table fairly quickly I will be more than happy with this experiment and the paltry sum I laid out to conduct it. I won't be using this on units that are closer to my heart...like any of my dwarfs etc. Those I will continue to paint in the normal fashion....which produces much better results overall...but does take a considerable bit longer to complete to satisfaction.

As an after note I was a little concerned that if in the future I wanted to re-paint these in a more traditional fashion that the dip would make it hard to strip the paint off. This proved to be a non-issue....I put the first orc with the brown stain in my normal Simple Green bath and it cleaned up very nicely.

Last Thursday saw me hosting another 3rd ed game at my house which pitted several of my work friends and associated against one another. After being quite loud during our last game we had been relocated to the garage for this one. This battle consisted of a combined force of humans and dwarfs commanded by Alex and Cher (with help from Black lab Shelby) squaring off against a Chaos and Greenskin force under the control of Tom, Samantha, and Paul. The mission was to search a small farmstead located in the middle of the table for an undefined "target of priority." Once again I didn't take enough pictures or notes to try and produce a real AAR but I thought I would share some pictures just for fun...

Chaos Hound Shelby hopes that little lead men are edible!

Alex and Cher Position their troops...

Watch Out! Paul has a Funny look in his eye! Sam doesn't seem too impressed with her first game...but she loved it by the end.

Cher Advances the Dwarfs on the Goodies left flank...hey girl your chaos attribute is showing! That's some pink hair!

Alex moves some of the human troops into the farmstead...

...out of the cabin run two dwarf treasure hunters carrying a dragon egg! After them!

The Dragon Company prepares to receive a charge from Goblin Wold Riders (check out my new movement trays!)

The battle was a real defensive struggle...no one had hot dice hands when it came to combat and everyone did when it came to Ld tests...so not much of significance happened for most of the night...until we were all bleary eyed and ready to throw in the towel. Tom talked us into one more turn...I think this was turn 9 or 10...and then practically the whole left flank of the Good Guys gave way when the three remaining Chaos Marauders broke a unit of Dwarf thunderers...this led too...

...sad Cher. We all bagged it and went home. It had been a long night!

We could have certainly played a few more turns...we had units that hadn't even gotten into combat yet...and the egg was still escaping off the table...but we were all crispy and ready to call. It was a fun night and I have recruit a few more minions for my 3rd ed games!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Just a quick note today. I'm in the throes of LPL painting and sadly can't show work-in-progress photos of my current work...but I can share some shots of a couple more of the Bretonnian "Squires with Bows" that I have been slogging through...these I used for a submission of last months Brush Slave League on CDO. I will be using these as scouts for my Bret/Empire force. I'm quite happy with these...the kneeling guy in particular has a wonderful face to paint....those Perry boys really know their business. Here they are...

You can tell I was in a hurry to get this entry in because the bases aren't really done and the photo cropping is crap...but I got it in and that is what counts...

Friday, April 5, 2013

During a recent troll through the depths of eBay I came across one of the Marauder MM32/34 Goblin Wolf Riders that I am still missing. This set is one of my long term projects and finding the last few has proven to be a challenge....though a fun one :) so I was pretty happy to find this guy from a seller in Germany...

Sure he doesn't look that great now...but he should clean up nicely and will look great when he joins his brethren.

...but thats not the point of this post...as I often do when I find an overseas deal that I can't pass up...I looked at the sellers other listing to see if I can combine shipping and pick up a couple of things at once. One of his listing was for a pile of bits from classic Marauder and Citadel figures. I threw in a low ball bid and waited...and scored a win! I was pleasently surpirsed and it cost me less than $4 US...plus a share of the shipping of course.

A heavy envelop arrived today from Germany so I quickly popped it open and was quite excited as I shifted thru the pile. Here were a bunch of pieces of classic figures that I would never have the ....uuummm... "intestinal fortitude" to butcher myself....and now I won't have too!

Fair warning....if the sight of mutilated Classic figures is disturbing to you then go no further!

Here is the pile as I dumped out onto my work surface....

Ummmm...heaping pile of lead.....yyyuuummmm

...Go ahead...take a moment and see what you can pick out....I'll wait a minute....

(whistle...whistle....)

You Good? Ready to see what we got here? ....ok here goes....

First your obligatory pile of random limbs and feet...

Mostly Plague Bearer parts...

Then there are a few random warrior types

I'm pretty sure Orylgg just showed that guy on the left on his blog...

Here we have a Chaos warrior missing an arm...part of a Battle Lord on the right...and a mystery figure in the middle...anyone know who he is?

Here are the Plague Bearers that used to belong to some of those feet...

Having never seen these figures in the flesh I've never had much interest in them...but now that I see some first hand...they do have a lot of character!

There are also a few dismembered Orcs...real classics here...

...including a villager...a standard... and a mage...

Next there are a few chopped up beastmen...

...this includes some of the Marauder Beastmen...I'm working up a unit of them so this might be useful for adding some variety to the rank and file. There is also a couple of classic Iron Claw beastmen.

And here is the part I'm most excited about....the upper torsos of no less than 7 Marauder MM90 Chaos Dwarfs...(plus one CW torso...)

I see some Badass Bull Centaurs in my future!

These will be great for conversions...These are figures I would never cut up on my own but having it done for me minimizes the guilt and opens up a lot of possiblilities for mixing with the other MM90s and even Clam's Ewal Dvergar....oh yeah...this is going to be fun!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

After a long weekend of travel for Easter I'm finally back at my work desk and slinging paint around! Also as the organizer of the Unit Painting Challenge on Bugman's I made the executive decision to extend the contest for another week...which is good because I'm hoping a few more shields appear soon!

So I know you have been waiting for an update...I know everyone is interested to see even more of these Bret Spears...seven posts on one unit doesn't seem excessive does it? Well good...because there will be at least one more...;-)

Anyway...here we are...I've finished the painting of the figures...I got them varnished and did all the bases last night. I also completed the 5 shields that I have and am ready to do the rest as soon as they arrive. Here is what the completed figures with shields will look like